KOTA KINABALU: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is gearing up to net a big fish in Sabah, soon.
The state's commission director Datuk Sazali Salbi said MACC is conducting several operations at the moment.
"We are still at the stage of gathering the necessary evidence and documents. When the time is right, we will strike.
"However, it will not be next week but it is coming soon. Maybe next month," he said without hinting any clue, as to who the big fish is likely to be.
Sazli said this to reporters after attending the ‘Ikrar Bebas Rasuah’ pledge with Universiti Malaysia Sabah at the institute of higher learning’s chancellery building, here, yesterday.
Sabah MACC had recently said it is keeping a close eye on civil servants of two governmental agencies suspected of corrupt practice.
This week, the commission's enforcement officers nabbed four policemen in Lahad Datu for bribery and eight medical assistants at Queen Elizabeth Hospital here for falsifying overtime claims.
When asked whether the hospital was one of the two agencies under Sabah MACC’s radar, Sazali said the healthcare sector was among them.
"That is the smaller one but the one coming is bigger. Just wait and see," he smiled.
Meanwhile, on the commission's probe into Felda Investment Corporation’s purchase of hotel, Sazali stressed that the probe was conducted by its Putrajaya headquarters and Sabah MACC was not involved.
MACC sources told New Straits Times that the commission was looking at Grand Borneo Hotel, a three-star hotel and part of the 1Borneo Hypermall here, which Felda acquired in 2012 for RM86.4 million.
They said the latest investigation was to establish if the hotel acquisition here was done in the same manner involving the other two properties in question, the Park City Grand Plaza in Kensington, London, and Merdeka Palace Hotel & Suites in Kuching, Sarawak.
On Aug 18, MACC deputy commissioner for operations Datuk Azam Baki had been reported saying investigations into FIC's purchase of the Grand Borneo Hotel were still in its early stages and have yet to reveal any wrongdoing.